For Sex, See Librarian

That's what the card used say, supposedly.



I just found It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris hidden between two atlases. And last week, stuffed behind the sofa, I found Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle (author of A Year in Provence, by the way). I have come to expect this: in the spring, elementary children's interest turns to... books about changing bodies, babies and LUV. And refreshingly, both of these books show human bodies as they are -- including grownups who are overweight and lumpy -- rather than as popular culture shows them.

I LUV having these and other books available for children; they are exactly what I needed when I was a kid and tried to put together information from an array of dubious and disgusting sources. However, after some misuse, I shelved them and about a dozen others separately from the regular human anatomy books.

Misuse:

• the 7-year olds who tried to draw matching lines between the different nude characters on a double-page spread -- "he goes with her, because they're fat, and she goes with him, because she's in a wheelchair and he's on crutches, and she goes with him, because their skin matches..."

• the 6-year old boy who kept shoving the page with male body parts under the noses of classmates who were quietly reading;

• the 10-year old girls, who would gather around one book and shriek with glee;

• and the 9-year old girl, who kept warning me that boys were looking at "inappropriate" books.

I point out the books to the upper elementary classes, noting that they have been challenged in school libraries across the country and that in many Georgia counties, they can't be in the school library -- they have to live in the guidance counselor's office. I ask, "Can you imagine walking into a counselor's office and asking to read that?" and I conclude, "So, if you have the guts to borrow one, no one at the circulation desk will embarrass you by asking you what your interest is."

Several years ago, a generous parent volunteer who shelves books asked if she could borrow It's Perfectly Normal. Her son was already in college, but she was curious about the book. She returned it, saying "Wow! I learned a lot that didn't know!" So for sex, see librarian.